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Photographed on my last morning in Tortuguero (yesterday) and these are probably my favorite bird photos bird photos from this trip. 🙂 Chestnut-colored Woodpecker, Celeus castaneus (linked to my gallery. I’ve seen this unusual woodpecker only one other time and that was in the South Caribbean, at Manzanillo. Tortuguero is in the North Caribbean. It is found from Mexico to Panama. And this is my first time to see a woodpecker eating a flower! 🙂
One of the lesser-seen butterflies is this Banded Tigerwing, Aeria eurimedia (my gallery link) found only in Central America and Northern South America. I think it is a handsome butterfly and I almost used one of my photos of it on my ’23 Christmas Card! 🙂
Is another new species for me this month, right here in my own garden! And I’ve had two sightings of this “another brown Skipper!” 🙂
It is said to be found from the southwestern U.S. to Argentina, but only two of us have posted photos on iNaturalist CR and only two on BAMONA. So it must be a little rare! 🙂
¡Pura Vida!
What I (and others) have been calling “Rounded Metalmark,” I now believe are Calephelis laverna (scientific name), Laverna Metalmark, Calephelis laverna (my gallery link). A Google AI summary of searches on the differences in Rounded and Laverna Metalmarks show the wing patterns to be almost identical with possibly “minor differences in genitalia and primary difference being the geographic distribution.” With Rounded Metalmarks found in Texas and Mexico and Laverna Metalmark (some sites use just “Calephelis laverna”) residing in Central America and parts of South America, especially noted in Costa Rica by the AI. Thus I am moving all of my Rounded Metalmarks to Laverna. Here are two photos of the one seen in my Garden Wednesday (side view & top view) . . .
Another favorite that is not seen every day in my garden is the Tropical buckeye, Junonia zonalis (my gallery link with better images). This first one seen since May this year and not as good photos as others in the gallery.
¡Pura Vida!
We have continued to have strange or different weather this year with July usually bright sun until mid-afternoon when the showers start. Well, the showers have been mostly the same with somewhat more this year, going all night occasionally, and even a few times into the morning. Which is OK, but, the mornings and early afternoons have had much less sunshine which is simply required for many of the flowers. It has been cloudy most of each day until the rain starts every day for over a month now!
My Porter Weeds are blooming less, the Lantanas have quit blooming as has the Golden Shrimp and the new Golden Dewdrop and Tropical Milkweed, all of which attract butterflies. The Zinnias that K planted next to my yard are blooming, but smaller or dwarfed by less sun. The only two things that seem to thrive in the dominant shade are my Maraca Plants (Shampoo Ginger) and the Anthuriums which I added some more of just to have some color.
The Desert Rose did poorly for awhile, which I blamed on repotting, but it is coming back strong now with blooms on each stem! (But it’s not a butterfly flower!) 🙂 It does need sun though, and I have it on the east side for morning sun, which is when we get what little we may get now.
Here are 6 shots of the ones that are blooming in July & August with another new one that I might not keep, the Ginger Lily. A shot of the “Garden Man” for the emailed version and then 5 more below that with explanations . . .
Below this email version photo is a gallery of 14 flower photos I made during the last 2 weeks of June. Yeah, I’m catching up on old photo blog posts written earlier. 🙂 Enjoy!
Or if you prefer, use this address: https://charliedoggett.smugmug.com/TRIPS/2025-July-1-6-Esquinas-Rainforest-Lodge
I consider these “Trip Galleries” the best of all my photo galleries where I put only the best photos from that experience. Then I link some of these photos to subject galleries such as a bird species gallery, etc. The trip galleries can also be of help if you plan a trip to one of these wonderful places I visit here in Costa Rica! 🙂
¡Pura Vida!
Though I’m slowing down and getting fewer photos of birds and everything else now, I also continue to be surprised with new species, like the Whitened Eyed-Metalmark butterfly in another post and that weird insect, Trychopeplus laciniatus, in still another blog post yesterday. All 4 were new species for me on my 3rd visit to this particular lodge and rainforest! 🙂 Just one reason I like Esquinas! 🙂
Now for the two new bird species this time . . .
That is one shot of the male. See more photos of both male & female in my Blue-black Grosbeak Gallery. The several types of Grosbeaks are all sort of like large Seedeaters.
And speaking of larger seedeater-type birds, the other first sighting for me was this Yellow-bellied Seedeater. (my gallery link) And sorry that I couldn’t get better photos! Two shots in the gallery.
And though not a lifer, I also got a couple of weak photos of a somewhat rare bird, indigenous to this Golfo Dulce area. “Indigenous” means it is found only in this Osa Peninsula/South Pacific area of Costa Rica and nowhere else in the world! 🙂 . . .
Continue reading “2 Lifer Birds at Esquinas”
On one of the trails at Esquinas Rainforest Lodge at Piedras Blancas National Park, I found this mossy root-like or vine-like “thing” walking around under a leaf (must have sticky feet). 🙂 I just posted it on iNaturalist, where the A I said it was pretty confident to put it in the Genus Trychopeplus, a genus of insects. I searched around more on iNat and decided that the closest match for a species is Trychopeplus laciniatus (linked to that page in iNaturalistCR. There is very little info online and no “common name” in Spanish or English, but mine matches most of the photos found of that species.
On land it would be kind of like a mossy “Walking Stick Insect” or to me almost looks more like the underwater “Sea Dragon” creatures found in the oceans somewhere, but I know nothing about those and didn’t try to research. 🙂
It is just one of the many fun things I keep finding here in Costa Rica and will continue to share on this blog. For other interesting insects I’ve photographed in Costa Rica, go the the More Insects Gallery. 🙂
2 more photos . . .
Continue reading “Weird Insect! Trychopeplus laciniatus”